Author's note: And now, the second chapter of Jaune and Sirena working together. I honestly wanted to have them do much more together, since they work so well, but I never got around to it.
The day after their first mission to protect Jacques, Jaune and Sirena were sitting in a truck, heading to the mines, and keeping an eye out for the assassins again. They made it past the incline, and Jaune barely saw any trace of the previous day's fight. Jaune focused, trying to track the assassins by their auras. He suddenly felt something target the Knight driving the truck, opened his shield and used gravity-dust to launch the Knight out of the vehicle, just as it began beeping. He followed it up with one of his disks, creating a barrier between the Knight and the truck, just as the former exploded.
"Good job," Sirena said with a smile and jumped out of the truck. Jaune collapsed his shield and followed her, then shifted his weapon into its great sword form and set up a Grassy Terrain, before activating Retaliation. Seeing his plan, Sirena also activated Retaliation, and both prepared for combat.
"Here they come," Jaune said and sent an aura arc towards the sniper, just as he fired a lightning-dust round. The aura arc absorbed the bullet, and the electrically charged arc knocked the sniper out in one powerful hit. The swarm of ethereal bees came for Jaune, but was taken out by the spore clouds surrounding him.
"Watch out," Sirena said and used a plant-dust Glyph to create a palisade, blocking a burst from the assassin wielding an assault rifle. She made three more Glyphs and shot wooden spikes at the assassin with the shotgun axe, getting rid of several of his minions. Suddenly, the assassin wielding the assault rifle shot at Sirena, while the other one ran towards Jaune and tried to hit him with his shotgun axe. Jaune brought up his sword and caught the weapon, hooking his sword under the axe head.
"Got you," Jaune said and grabbed the handle with his left hand, then twisted the weapon out of the man's hands and shot him with his own gun, using the momentum to bring his sword around and hit the assassin with an upward strike. The man staggered backwards and his aura broke, Jaune dropped the gun and punched him in the face, knocking him out. After restraining him and taking a weird-looking necklace, Jaune went to help Sirena with the last assassin.
"Good job, now let's finish this," Sirena said and fired a barrage of icicles at the assassin. He dodged the attack, reloaded his assault rifle, and opened fire again, relying on short bursts of three rounds each, which Sirena blocked with an ice shield formed from the ice-goo plant fiber in her sleeves.
"Ren, now," Jaune called out, and Ren shot his special disk at the assassin from within May's Invisibility Field. While the assassin was distracted, Jaune sent an aura arc towards him, knocking him down. He got back up and shot a tree-round burst at Jaune, but each hit created a handful spectral bees that attacked the assassin. The fragments surrounding the assassin blocked the bees, breaking on contact. Jaune threw a bolas at the man, restraining him. However, just as he wanted to move in, the men ignited in blue fire again, and disappeared completely, including their weapons, and the necklace Jaune had taken. Seeing the bodies disappear, May lost focus and she and Ren became visible again.
"Ren, May, what are you doing here?" Sirena asked, and walked over to the duo.
"I asked Ren to help me out," Jaune answered, "You said we needed someone to gather information, and I figured Ren could do it, since we know each other pretty well."
"I asked May to come along to help me stay hidden," Ren said.
"Hello," May said and asked, "That fire… are they alright?"
"I see," Sirena said and answered, "But yes, they're alright. It's a transportation semblance that allows the user to bond with people, and then bring their allies to them at will."
"That sounds pretty useful to get people out of trouble," May said.
"It is, yes," Sirena answered, "But it's also useful for when you don't want people to get interrogated after committing a crime."
"True," May said, more somberly, and asked, "So, Ren, what was that disk, anyway?"
"I got this disk launcher from the military," Ren answered, "It can shoot normal disks, or a special one. In my case, the special disk make the point of impact lure in Grimm. Since I can sense that, I'm using that to track those assassins down later today, and try to find out who hired them."
"I might ask for one of those, too," May said.
"Sounds good," Sirena said, "But we should really get back to Mantle now. You two go ahead." She called for pickup, and made a portal to Maria for Ren and May, since they weren't supposed to be there. Once reinforcements showed up, Sirena made another portal to Maria for herself, while Jaune went with the workers and reinforcements, just in case the assassins came back to finish the job.
~o~
Later that night, Ren was running over Mantle rooftops, trying to get to the point he marked with his special disk. He jumped off a roof, landed on another one and rolled before getting back up and doing a side flip onto another roof. He snuck up to a large storage building and peeked in through the windows, where he saw several men in the same assassin uniform walking around, or sitting on wooden crates. As he moved around outside the building, and took in all the nooks and crannies, he mentally prepared a plan for entrance, stealth, combat, and escape.
"Alright," Ren thought and dumped a packet of peanuts on a window, then quickly moved to another one. As soon as pigeons came to eat the peanuts, pecking the window in the process, Ren slipped in through another window. When one of the men went to check what the pigeons were doing, they flew away, startling the man and causing him to fall back down. In the commotion, Ren fired the hook from one of his weapons and grappled one of the men by wrapping the wire around his neck, then pulled him towards himself. The assassin landed on his back, and Ren hit him with a palm thrust in the face, slamming his head into the ground with an aura shockwave and knocking him out.
"A mighty warrior returns from battle," one of the assassins said mockingly, while the other one got back up and the group laughed at him being surprised by mere birds. Ren hid the assassin and went through his contact list, channeling his aura through the scroll's connection as he selected the name, to try and find the three that kept attacking Jaune and Sirena. However, among the contacts, he also found the Shadow King, and quickly wrote the number down as a note on his own scroll, then continued looking for his targets.
"Got you," Ren thought and pocketed the assassin's scroll, then sent a message to his friends that he had the people. He then quickly made his way around the hidden spaces of the storage building, using Retaliation, augmented with plant-dust, in every corner to set up a handful of spore clouds.
"Hey, someone's here," one of the assassin's shouted when he spotted the one Ren had hidden. The assassins all readied their weapons and prepared for a fight. Ren shot the blade from one of his guns into a steel beam on the opposite side of the room and pulled himself over to it, firing crystal rounds into the assassins. The fragments did little damage, but each hit triggered the necklaces, releasing a single ethereal bee. He landed behind some boxes, the bees came for him and were taken out by the spore clouds. Ren did a backflip onto some wooden boxes and was confronted by Titan, the assassin with the fragment semblance. Titan tried to hit Ren with his axe, but Ren blocked the blow with one of his guns and hooked the other behind the axe handle, then twisted the weapon out of its wielder's hand.
"Wait, what?" Titan asked, and Ren shot him with a short volley of ivy rounds, trapping him in thorny vines. When Titan stumbled backwards, Ren kicked him and used an aura shockwave to slam him into a steel beam behind him. Ren shot one of his blades into another support beam and pulled himself to another spot in the building, firing crystal rounds from his free gun again and triggering the necklaces, while they shot at him, but kept missing.
"I know I can't beat them," Ren thought, "But I can weaken them, while my friends get here. Infiltration, espionage, sabotage." He landed behind some boxes, and the bees were taken out by the spore clouds, when a man appeared behind him and put him in a choke hold. Ren struggled to break free, but knew he couldn't do much against the man. In the corner of his eye, he saw a black hair float down, flailed his legs until he got the hair wrapped around his ankle, and found himself outside the building again.
"Sorry we're late," Blake said, and Ren saw Jaune, Sirena, Maria and Marrow nearby as well, all ready to get serious.
"It's fine," Ren said, "Be careful, they're working for the Shadow King. But I know which ones keep attacking Jacques, so I can pick them off when I get the chance." The assassins came running out the door and found themselves surrounded. Maria rushed in and attacked some of the assassins, but each hit she landed spawned a handful of ethereal bees, forcing her to disengage. The other assassins went on the offense, and Jaune created several clones to set up a shield wall, blocking off a road.
"I hate that they can do that," Jaune said, "We can't attack them carelessly."
"Exactly," Ren said, "We have to use crystal rounds, and have Sirena augment her semblance with plant-dust. The bees come from an item, and item creation semblances only last a certain number of uses."
"Sounds like a plan," Blake said and replaced her magazine with a crystal one, while Ren replaced his ivy bullet magazine with another crystal bullet one. They both rushed in and shot at the assassins from various angles, while Sirena shot ice chains to two nearby lamp posts and coated herself, the chains, and the lamp posts in plant-dust, creating dozens of spore clouds.
"Alright, I'm going back in," Maria said and jumped over the shield wall, rushing the enemies and swerving between them to create chaos, while Marrow opened fire, taking advantage of Honorguard boosting his damage due to being outnumbered. Ren stopped shooting and shot one of his guns' blades, wrapping the wire around the shotgun guy's neck and pulling him out of the fray. He kicked him against a brick wall with an aura shockwave, knocking him out, and used Petal Burst to get away from the battle to look through his scroll in peace.
"Now let's see who your boss is," Ren said and called the contact listed as Boss, only for the scroll he already had taken to start buzzing. He looked at the storage house, when a blue flame ignited inside it, and a tundra bear's roar echoed through the night. The roar was slowly replaced by gargling, and the assassins screamed when they saw the second Rakshasa take form from within the tundra bear. They opened fire and ran behind the shield wall.
"We've done it before, let's do it again," Blake said, switched from Spectral Assault to Spectral Healing, used Deathzone on the incendiary-goo in her ears, dashed above the Grimm and created an augmented shadow clone. Her clone exploded into red-hot glass shards, dealing damage every second and ensuring a somewhat steady supply of aura for herself and her allies. Marrow manifested several icicles from his tail, coated them in dark green energy with Shadowpoint, and launched them into the Rakshasa. They dissipated immediately after impact, recharging Ren's aura.
"Everyone, stay put," Sirena said, raising her voice, "Titan, Trapper, get in close and keep hurting it. The rest, too."
"You're not-" one of the assassins said, but was grabbed by the Rakshasa and slammed into a nearby facade, breaking his aura on impact but releasing a large swarm of bees.
"Alright, ma'am," Titan said and opened fire, while another assassin drew his cane sword, with an ankh as a pommel, and dashed past the Grimm, leaving a purple trail in his wake, along with copies of his sword on each of his starting points. Sirena fired a blast of gravity-dust from her trident, knocking the Rakshasa closer to one of the swords, and it began cutting away at it immediately.
"Jaune, let's go," Sirena said and held her right hand out to one of the clones. The other clones disappeared, and Jaune looked at her.
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked.
"Of course," Sirena answered, "We both want to protect people, after all." Jaune took Sirena's hand and she pulled him into a hug, and both their auras lit up.
"I haven't felt so alive in ages," Maria said, dodging the Grimm's attacks with the help of her semblance, and delivering a flurry of counter attacks whenever its stretched arms were close. Assassins were flying left and right, with Spectral Healing recharging their auras a bit every second, while the assassins baited the Rakshasa to extend its limbs past the spectral swords, so they could attack it as well. The Rakshasa slapped a trash can, hurling it towards Ren.
"Watch out!" Blake called out, and something else hit Ren, surrounding him with a yellow bubble with triangle pattern running across it. The trash can bounced off the bubble, and Ren looked to where the projectile had come from. He saw an androgynous fusion wearing silver plate armor that only left the head exposed, with a light blue, knee-long half skirt with white fluff along the rim. The fusion had long, strawberry blonde hair and silver eyes, and wielded a white great sword with a sunflower-shaped disk launcher by the hand guard.
"My name is Aegis. Nice to meet you," Aegis said with a smile. The Rakshasa tried to punch Aegis, but they held against the blow. Their torso and arm armor began glowing light blue, and a copy of it split off from them, forming a floating guardian that began punching the Rakshasa. Aegis raised their sword, cutting off the Grimm's arm, and brought it down for an aura arc that drove the Grimm through the storage building behind it. The assassins aimed their guns at the Rakshasa, then stepped back in shock.
"There- there's something in there," Trapper said, and the Grimm reformed around the tundra bear and attacked again. Aegis sent another Astral Guardian, this time putting it into the gaping hole in the building. The guardian stopped the Grimm and threw it to the ground, beating it relentlessly. Ren switched to crystal rounds and fired at the Rakshasa, and Blake made several incendiary-goo clones after switching to Spectral Assault. The Rakshasa released countless tendrils of black goop, pushing everyone back and allowing it to pull itself to a nearby rooftop.
"Watch out," Ren said as the Rakshasa rose to its hind legs, revealing a circle of hexagonal holes on its underside, from which it fired small bone shards. Using both his own extrasensory perception, and Preflexes, Ren shot the shards out of the air with crystal bullets, while the assassins around him protected their faces from the projectiles he missed, with their necklaces creating a handful of ethereal bees every time they took a hit. Aegis prepared their special disk and aimed their sword at the Rakshasa. The Grimm got hit by a bullet, paused for a moment, and its underside exploded. Before it could reform, Aegis shot their disk at the tundra bear. The bear was surrounded by a bubble shield, blowing the Rakshasa to pieces and killing it.
"Nice work, Snipe," Aegis said, and a sniper jumped down from a nearby building. He had prosthetic legs with cushioned pads under his feet, as well as retractable claws to help him climb, and prosthetic eyes to enhance his vision.
"Nice semblance," Ren said.
"Thanks," Trapper said and asked, "But, you know I'm an assassin, right? I kill people, and stuff."
"But you also helped save the kingdom," Ren said, "Anyway, I think Aegis can help us both. Hold still." Ren held up his hand in front of the assassin's face and focused his aura on his palm, until it radiated like a purple beam, leaving the assassin dazed for a moment afterwards.
"What was that?" Trapper asked.
"A useful aura technique," Ren answered, "Now you can make your aura act like mine, and calm your emotions to become invisible to Grimm. You can even use it on other people. Aegis can teach you how to use it." He waved the fusion over, and Aegis walked over to the duo. The fusion put their hand on Trapper's shoulder and used Mentor.
"Here you go," Aegis said, "Now you can just enter your soul core, and find Ren's emblem. And while I'm at it, let's also teach you the other thing." They then also taught Trapper how to leave an imprint of his aura on someone else's soul, and he let Ren copy his semblance.
"Is this really going to work?" Trapper asked and said, "I mean, I've met a bunch of people in my life, with all kinds of skills, but this sounds pretty wild."
"It is, yes," Aegis answered, turned to the crowd and asked, "But in any case, who wants to be able to use my semblance?" The assassins all raised their hands, and Aegis went around teaching them how to use Aura Guardian, and enter their soul cores, while Ren tested Trapper's Sword Dash semblance, while Aegis shared their semblance with Jaune. After a while, Aegis split up again, called animal control to have the tundra bear brought in for a medical check-up, and the assassins left.
~o~
While the rest of the group prepared for their trip to Vale, Sirena quietly slipped away to take care of some more personal business. She found a quiet corner and pulled out her scroll, and after bypassing the security protocols keeping people out of the new system, she contacted Argent.
"Hello, I just wanted to say, thanks for the help," Sirena wrote.
"You're welcome," Argent responded, "Were my men of any help?"
"Of course," Sirena wrote, "Jaune and Ren learned some valuable skills, and I taught them the new technique, as promised."
"That's good," Argent wrote, "Anyway, did Snipe recognize you?"
"Of course he didn't," Sirena responded, "After all, you did ask me to make sure neither of them see me in Argus."
"You know, sometimes I'm scared of you," Argent wrote.
"I know," Sirena wrote, paused for a moment and added, "But I really appreciate your help. It means a lot to me, really." She collapsed her scroll again and put it away, then rejoined the rest in their preparations to avoid raising too much suspicion.
Author's note: A few revelations, yay.
Also, Aegis' design is mostly based on Bishamonten from the anime Noragami, mainly her using her regalia Aiha.
Her semblance, Aura Guardian, is based on the set bonus of the Stardust Armor from Terraria, which is in itself a JoJo reference.